A Data Collection Framework for Bluetooth Mesh Networks

Abstract: This thesis presents a framework for collecting network traffic data usable in performance evaluations of Bluetooth Mesh networks. The framework is designed to be adaptive, effective, and efficient. These design goals are intended to minimize resource usage and thereby take constraints in Bluetooth Mesh into account. An implementation of the framework, based on the Bluetooth Mesh model concept, is also presented. The implementation is then validated and evaluated to analyse to what degree it fulfills the requirements of adaptive, effective, and efficient data collection. The evaluation demonstrates the importance of minimizing the size of the reports sent in the framework since larger messages sent with short intervals have a noticeable effect on both the packet delivery ratio of user traffic and the reporting latency. It is also shown that the adaptive reporting feature, that aims to reduce the effect of the framework on user traffic by postponing reporting during high traffic loads, has a positive effect on neighboring nodes overall packet delivery ratio.